If You Are Not Measurable; You Are Miserable!

Measurability is what your employer looks up to when it comes to your hiring. You are offered a matching price against the your skillsets that can be measured on different professional parameters like on time execution of assigned tasks, resource management, delivering expected outcomes etc. There are your core strengths as well as your other interest areas in which you may be assigned a task in case of likelihood. According to the tasks assigned to you, there is a price earmarked for your professional contribution.

When we talk about measurability it covers the entire gamut of attributes from your professional competence to your behavioral management, interpersonal skills, emotional immunity and all which can help the management to derive the optimum deliverables from you. It should also embrace the consistent approach towards excellence, i.e. how you are evolving with time. The more consistent you are in your approach the better it becomes for the management to gauge your skillsets.

But what if you are not living up to the desired parameters of the management? What if your skillsets are not measurable. The chances are you won’t be hired in the first place. Even if you manage to find an employer, you will not be able to hold the profile for long if your contributions are not up to the standards. You will not be considered for the routine appraisals, timely bonuses, increments and rewards awarded to the most deserving professionals.

As per the management standards, you should always be expecting professional recognition as well as monetary gains as you grow professionally. If anyone of the above is not happening, in spite of your continued professional excellence, you should start looking for change and most likely you will find the one which is suitable to you. However if this is you who has obstructed the path to progress then you should prepare to face the music. Holding up of rewards are not the only outcome, it brings with it whole lot of problems….well miserable is the term to define the outcome of the later attitude. So the choice is yours, whether you want yourself to be measurable or miserable.

Mentor Lives On Forever

Whatever we do, whomever we interact with we leave an impression. Each of us makes some mark on the canvas of time which can be good or bad. What differs between the ordinary way of doing the things and extraordinary way of doing the things is our approach. We act without planning, without considering the impact of our actions on others or without implementing the learnings derived from our past experiences. Whereas extraordinary beings who are revered as mentors work with perfection. This is where the mentor differs from the masses.

The mentor works with a planning, a vision, gives proper consideration to the impact of the actions on others and implements the learnings gathered from the past experiences. Whatever goes to the mentor receives his or her distinction and touch. If the noble and sublime thoughts are touched by him or her it gets concrete form and manifests properly. The various ways through which we are encouraged, motivated by the mentor always guide us and help us in dealing with the difficult situations with right approach and positive attitude.

The mentor does not necessarily fight for us, the mentor does not need to be with us all the time. He trains us to fight and win our battle on our own. Mentor gives us the vision and teaches us way and trains us to walk. Dronacharya did not fight for Arjuna, rather he fought against him but he was defeated by Arjuna, how come? Because he had taught him the lessons, well before coming to the battlefield. We may feeling his/her need forever but he or she has only two tasks before him/her. To give us all aim and to teach us how to get to it. If it is done he or she need not be guiding us tangibly. We may still feel the need to be guided all the time but the mentor is free once we imbibe and connect to his or her vision. After this imbibing all the responsibility falls upon us.

The strong thought waves and resolute will he or she evokes continue to surround us always whether or not the mentor is visibly guiding. If we live up to the vision set by the mentor we can feel his presence and their proximity. The mentor lives in the ideals. We can realize their immortality when we start believing and living his ideas.

The God is not far from us, we just need to look to the godly things around us. In the same way our mentor never bereaves or abaondons us we just need to live up to the ideals set by him. The mentor always lives in their ideals and lives forever.

We often complain about the short livedness. One can say that Thomas Elva Edison died young; had he lived more he would surely have done more good to the mankind with his kind of inventions. Saint Vivekananda, the greatest spiritual master, mentor of the centuries went to heavenly abode at the young age of 39. We can say that he would have touched, illuminated more souls with his spirituality had he lived more. But the mentor does not believe in longetivity, he or she believes in quality, perfection accomplishment of vision, setting up of standards and ideals. As long as we too believe in these things we shall always feel the connection with our mentor immortal.

Holistic Approach Towards Our Work

Low satisfaction at work place, decreased energy levels and low efficiency is the result of our inability to connect to our work. To me it is more than just the question of ethics. Ethically I should be justifying with my office hours, carry out the given assignments, follow the routine etc. If I am practicing all of these chores then it should be good enough for the organization and also for my professional career.

But I strongly believe if we are able to connect with our work in right sense we can get the impossible breakthrough through our work. By right sense I mean to say that the work should be looked at as a medium for excellence and evolution ultimately. I see lots of trainers use the phrases like 'work with passion', 'you should be passionate towards your work', 'passionate towards your goals'. On the contrary I think that we should try to work without passion because it dies down with time. It becomes disastrous to face work when the passion dries up. We need to understand that we should work for the sake of work; there should be no escapism. Whether to meet our social requirements, personal ambitions, material requirements we shall have to work.

By writing I am reiterating it to myself yes this is the way to go: Work without passion, work because you ought to, work because it is the most vital element in your evolution process.

Can't You Hear Me?

Can't You Hear Me? ...........Presays

We all fancy to be the masters of our mind always wanting to get or achieve what we think or dream of. We enroll ourselves for n-hours and n-days of seminars for the break(through) in our lives. In these seminars powerful orators descend, deliver and depart leaving us spellbound. We think 'man that was great! Barring a few citations whatever they said was right. I’ll try to implement a few of their suggestions in my life although it is very difficult.' As the days pass by that resolution diminishes. We hardly get the break(through) we always dream of.

The simple reason behind this is that we fail to recognize where the real stimulants are, where the real motivator is. That stimulant, that motivator resides right in our minds, in our hearts. Oh really? !! How come we’ve never realized it? Because we never try to listen to ourselves, listen to our hearts, listen to our minds. One of my very good friends is die hard fan of FM, he just can’t live without it. Though for me FM stands for frivolous mind but he takes it as twenty four hours’ fun music! If he is not talking (sincerely) he is listening to music while doing his routine work.

Of late I came to know about the classification by some intellectuals with some findings to back up the performers doing their chores while listening to their favorite music (even rock lovers find their ways to this chart). This music lover friend of mine would even go to sleep without turning the player off. In fact he was so fond of FM that he used to switch it off only when he dreaded the player to blow off. In that case he would turn on the cell phone player! Once on eccentric height, he asked, ‘buddy what’s the goal of life?’ I replied him that it is one, of which the manifestation varies from person to person. ‘Do you know what’s your goal?’, he asked to which I said, ‘yes’. He then asked me how he could find his goal. I said, ‘listen to your heart, to your mind’. He further asked how.

I told him to switch off the player, he instantly did. Then he started talking, I said, ‘don’t talk’. He obliged and took newspaper in his hands and started gazing through the pages. When I told him not to do that he unexpectedly obliged. He picked up 'oracle bible' and asked me while turning his Oracle Bible ‘now what?’ in sign language. I told him not to do even that, I told him to sit calmly and to listen to the mind.

He sat for a moment and then shot at me, ‘are you mad? Are you crazy? Of whole world you found me to experiment with’. I’ve no interest in finding my goals I’m better off without them. And to top that you having your goals found are no damn good than I. What are exceptional things you do man?’ Having said that he switched the player on and resumed listening. This was not unusual or unexpected behaviour. Most people behave in this way because it is very difficult for them to remain silent. Their minds are so impatient to make them listen that they shout like anything. This is because minds don’t know when would be the next time they’d get the chance to speak out, this is because we’ve ignored our minds and hearts for so long that they(minds) themselves have adorned a fiery getup waiting to roar and thunder whenever they find a chance.

But our minds will calm down and speak in rhythm, in harmony when we keep on listening to them regularly. When the voice waves from the mind subside then will come the turn of the heart to speak out. We then can fine tune the heart with little manual tuning from our part. All we have to do is to recite mentally ‘Allah, Allah, Allah…….’ or ‘Ram, Ram, Ram……’ His silent melodies start playing, something that could never surface otherwise. Sweet and soothing melodies of peace, serenity which we can not listen till we keep on attracting distractions. Amidst these harmonious melodies He whispers, 'son, do this, do that, do that way, take this aid....' I am not unique to receive His Call, in fact He is open to one and all. But we need to make a way for Him to say, to convey.

But can we hear Him in a day? No, we shall have to practice regularly. It is not that one fine day we remain seated trying to listen and the next day we rock the whole world on. To practice it on daily basis we’ll have to follow a routine. Our routine should not be marred or affected with our emotional ups and downs, working without passion and remorse. Ok this idea clicked to you, you started working on it and you succeeded too, but…what about me? I’m not of the same temperament, tenacity that you’re. Then won’t you help me out. Yes? Great! Now what we should do, how can we proceed? Since we share common place-n-space with others whether at home or in office we need to share our common time as well. Say for an hour or half we’ll enjoy the music collection, even I’ll listen to the songs you play. That will be great after all we can not work out efficiently for ten-tweleve long hours without a quality break. That will be the time when we all take our earplugs out and listen to songs from player with speakers on. After the break period is over we again put our earplugs on and help each other evolve through our work or try hearing our hearts, try hearing Him so that we do not find someone very special and dear residing within us shout at us, ‘Can’t you hear me??????’

Karma His Way

Whatever we do, whatever we invest in or whatever we spend nothing is unnoticed. He keeps account of everything, every moment and every thought that touches us or that takes shape out of us or that manifests in our work because the Creator Himself being the banker maintains our logbook with absolute precision. Ever wondered where you spent the sum that you had earned over the last decade? You might have lost or forgotten the count but it is recorded somewhere. The same is true with this life too. The way I treated the housekeeping boy who spilled soup on the desk while cleaning or what I was thinking while saying no to the guy who was asking for money without repaying the previous sum, all has been recorded. When I realized this I started thinking why not use His account balance for the purpose He has intended to. I need to utilize this lifetime for the purpose He has proclaimed to be His directed one as told in the SriGita, or the Bible or the Quran. Atheist read him otherwise, finding follies and inaccuracies in His various manifestations. (See the ‘religious fights’, ‘crusades’, ‘jihads’ or ‘dharmayuddha’ all in His name!). But He is the one altogether.

Now I have little idea of His plans for me and I also have idea of my previous births though it is limited to a few births but even though I feel relieved with the journey so far because of this privileged state. I have no idea or memory of my ant-warm lives but I feel empathy for the same. Although at times I hurt them or I did have killed them but I do wish for their exponential, out of turn promotions though I do wonder whether it will serve the purpose for them. I do wonder what would be the fate of the person who attacked me. Inferring the no interference from His side and leaving it all to the Karma principles what shape his life would take. Karma karma karma. Why don’t we believe in its principles. Why don't we do something that is humane. Why do we not aspire for perfection in our work. Why doing something carelessly. If this is what will shape us then why not we shape what we can and when we can. Doesn’t the optimistic opportunities that it carries make the karma enjoyable activity forever. Kartavya afterall is karma than why not enjoy it why not do it with perfection. Now I willingly acknowledge the conclusion of 'Do everything and love Him'. When manifested in our work, our duties this love has the ability to liberate us, to free us from the bondages.

Love,

Preyash.

Shocking Life…Shaking Beliefs

This section was delayed for long because it needed much editing before it could surface over net. Terming it as editing would be improper because it needed internal correction from my side. Whatever I wanted to post was of a person that had complaining nature. Why he did this and why ‘he did this to ME?’ My Mentor wanted to correct me in His way but I simply resisted. This complaining attitude had to go. If we believe in His designs then why to revolt against His game-plan. I believe my rebirth was a miracle…even my coming to the capital and my friends here all had some purpose but his thought just could not go off my mind even here. Namrata m’am (though all in the office are very distinct and distinguished but she has got this precious ‘karma’ gift to share with others) told me to sincerely name him in my prayers saying whatever he did yielded his karma effect, I should not think for him with complaining attitude rather I should pray for him. I do not know how but it clicked to me. After great difficulty I prayed for him, how difficult it was I can not utter but I managed somehow. Just praying was not important I had my attitude towards him changed. After one month it got reflected in my life too. But the problem with my posting remained as it was before. Whenever I tried to write about that incident I got nervous, disturbed, perturbed and perplexed. This problem had to be sorted out so that I can share the ‘life shines’ message with all. My Muskaan fixed this problem for me by playing Ratnavali bashing and lashing everytime I portrayed that perplexed preyash at the time of writing! Anyway it is not going to be posted now but whenever it is posted one thing is for sure, it will not spit venom or complain rather it will convey love and celebrate the good things in life, the purpose it was started for.

Love,
Preyash.

‘Mystical’ quest that led to traumatic ending

Excerpt from Hindustan Times, Ranchi Edition, 21 June 2005:

‘Mystical’ quest that led to traumatic ending

NAMITA Tewari

Ranchi, June 21

PREYASPATI MISHRA, all of 25 years old, failed to appear in Post-graduate Diploma in Translation and the Bachelor in Information Technology examinations of the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has yet to recover from the traumatic assault that his cousin Shreyaspati mounted upon him in a warped attempt to achieve mystical powers that he chose to describe as “siddhi”.  Preyashpati, nursing a head injury at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences and rigned by shell-chocked parents who had rushed to Ranchi on learning of the “attempted sacrife,” was unable to place a guess as to why his cousin did so.

“I cannot imagine why Shreyaspati acted in this manner. He had met me several times at the Kashyap Hostel near Ashok nagar where I was staying and had extended an invitation to visit his home in Nagra Toli about a month ago. He met me on June 15, on the eve of my examinations, telling me that he had just come back from Lucknow and that he wished that I spent the night at his house.  I went along without suspecting that he had other designs on me,” said Preyaspati.

At his house at Tangra Toli, Shreyaspati told Preyaspati to rest easy, that he would drop him at the examination centre on the morning of the June 16.  Preyaspati did not eat the vermicelli that his cousin had prepared as a sweet dish after dinner.

The next morning Shreyaspati asked him to wait a while as he had to perform a puja.  As he waited, unaware of the design his cousin had in mind, he relaxed but soon doubled up in pain and horror as he found his cousin going hammer and tongs at him with a hammer.

“He kept aiming at my head.  I was dumbfounded to see him in this state, there was blood all over his face.  He came back at me fourth time and it was then that I asked him why he was doing so, “said Preyaspati, still unable to come to terms with his cousin’s mad behaviour.

Taking me to be semi-conscious Shreyaspati started mumbling that he would give me “liberation” and he, after he had done him in, would have gotten “siddhi”.

Somehow, Prayaspati managed to fling the latch of the house open, stumble outside and holler for help.  Neighbours rushed in when they saw me lying comatose on the ground.

“I was rushed to the Sadar Hospital by a traffic policeman and an auto-rickshaw driver.  I was referred to the RIMS by the doctors at the Sadar Hospital, “he recalled.

And that is where he today, recovering albeit slowly from the injuries sustained in his head, still benumbed by the fact that it was his cousin and nobody else who had sought to “sacrifice” him in pursuance of some mad dream.